...“Letters from Birmingham Jail” and “The Gettysburg Address” share a common purpose of persuading people to come together and continue the fight towards equality through rhetorical strategies such as allusion and pathos. Throughout the texts, the authors use allusion, like in paragraph 1 of “The Gettysburg Address” and in paragraph 10 of “Letters from Birmingham”, and pathos, like in paragraph 2 of “The Gettysburg Address” and paragraph 8 of “Letters from Birmingham Jail”. Allusion is a rhetorical strategy that refers to something real or fictional, to someone, some event, etc. The authors use allusion in the text to advance their purpose. In the speech “The Gettysburg Address”, Abraham Lincoln alludes to Revolutionary War in the first few words “Four score and seven years ago”. Alluding to our Founding Fathers during the Revolutionary...
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...How does the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech compare and contrast? Any half-sensible American should at least be able to tell you that they are all crucial pieces of America’s development as a nation, and that they all had different authors and intents. To compare and contrast them effectively, each piece’s purpose, the effect of the document/speech, and the author’s writing style must be analyzed. Each document was written under vastly differing circumstances. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was constructed by our Founding Fathers to combat the oppressive power of King George and separate ties with Britain. In 1863 the Gettysburg Address was given by President...
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...Lincoln incorporates Pathos, Ethos, and Logos in the Gettysburg Address by grasping onto the soldiers’ emotions and motivating them to continue to fight for their fallen brothers. The Gettysburg Address appeals to the soldiers’ emotions and intellect while it appeals to Lincoln’s credibility. Lincoln states “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.” He instills the emotion of empowerment into the soldiers by inspiring the men to finish the war for their dead comrades. The speech empowers the soldiers because Lincoln wants his men aggressive and ready to fight. Lincoln is the president of the United States, and he shows credibility by proclaiming his gratitude towards his men. He wants his men to be cared...
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...Both the Gettysburg Address and the “I Have A Dream” speech have the same purpose but different outcomes. They have the same type of appeals, purpose, and tone. Appeals are things like logos, pathos, and ethos. The purpose is why the speeches were written, and the tone is the mood or attitude of the speech. Lincoln’s and King’s speeches use different appeals. In The Gettysburg Address, Lincoln states, “ It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.” This is an ethical appeal because it shows that the speaker is trustworthy and knowledgeable. On the contrary, King states in his I Have a Dream speech, “ This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of slaves who had been seared...
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...President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech address the theme of American democracy in many ways. Some similar ways, but others different. In both speeches they talk about how everyone needs to be equal, and treated fairly. Not everything in the two speeches are the same, but very similar. They both just want equality, and fairness between all. No matter what skin color, hair color, eyes. No matter what clothes you wear. We are all equal, and that's what everyone needs to know. That was the point of the two speeches. To give people hope, and motivation during hard times. I defiantly think that President Lincoln's speech was more to empower everyone, and make them feel less helpless. But,...
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...Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” has a strong and lasting influence on all those in attendance, including the friends and families of those who perished in the onslaught that occurred at Gettysburg. Lincoln memorialized those who lost their lives in the battle, while instilling a passion in the hearts of the remaining soldiers. Lincoln used pathos, repetition, and balanced phrasing to help him achieve his purpose. Many examples of emotional appeal can be found in the lines of the “Gettysburg Address.” Lincoln opens his speech by mentioning the ideals upon which this country was created. This reminded the audience of the freedom received with the writing of the “Declaration of Independence” and of victory over a conflicting power. Lincoln states “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” This statement immortalizes the sacrifices that the fallen soldiers made and reminds the audience their loved ones died for a cause and their sacrifices will never be forgotten. Lincoln uses repetition throughout his speech for effect. Lincoln states that “we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground.” Even though the words that he uses are synonymous, the repetition allows Lincoln to strengthen his point, that the sacrifice these men made vastly outweighs mere words alone. In the final sentence, Lincoln proclaims “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government...
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...Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address (1863) At the centre of all that Americans value is freedom. This includes political, religious, economic and personal freedom etc., and many Americans regard their society as the best and freest society in the world. Freedom is a value that is deeply rooted in the history of the country, as it goes back to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and later also the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. The ideal in these is that liberty and equality go hand in hand, but this is not always the case. The American Civil War is one the greatest examples on this. The war had its roots in the question about slavery, and it ended up costing the lives of more Americans than all of the U.S.’s subsequent wars together. On the afternoon of November 19 1863, four months after one of the Civil Wars bloody fights, the president at that time, Abraham Lincoln, holds a speech in which he encourages the people of America to end the war. Furthermore, he reminds the audience of the ideals on which America was founded, and how the Civil War is threatening them. Last but not least, Lincoln honors the fallen and encourages people to finish their unfinished work. Abraham Lincoln frames his speech in a historical perspective and introduces two of the most important American values already in his first sentence of his speech. “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition...
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...The United States holds certain ideas extremely dear. In 1861, the North and the South of the United States engaged in a great civil war because the South’s practice of slavery clashed with one of these precious beliefs. After a major battle in the town of Gettysburg, President Lincoln composed the Gettysburg Address, a speech in which he highlights that fighting for equality is vital in the United States. Through his speech, he explains that equality needs to be achieved in order for the nation to come together again. Lincoln used various techniques to try to persuade people to strive for equality. He begins by referring to the Declaration of Independence, reminding all Americans of the prominent notion that “all men are created equal” (27)....
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...In order for a speech to be effective, the speaker must use rhetorical devices that can grab an audience’s attention and help them remember the speech forever. Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln have made the most memorable speeches of all time because of the rhetorical devices they used. Reagan (“The Challenger”) used pathos, allusion, and parallelism. Kennedy (“Inaugural Address”) applied antithesis, parallelism, and anaphora. And Lincoln utilized allusion, anaphora, and epistrophe into his speech. Each of these speeches lasted anywhere from a minute to two hours. But in the end, length did not matter; the only thing that mattered is the rhetorical devices these president's used in order to get the nation to listen to them and therefore do what they are told. In Ronald Reagan’s “The Challenger” speech, he uses the rhetorical device pathos, or the appeal to emotion, in order to connect the pain that his family, the entire nation, and the families of those affected by the disaster were feeling. As WordPress.com said, “Reagan uses his delivery, use of dictation, and appeals to pathos to help attempt a...
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...President-elect Barack Obama, in his 2009 inaugural address, discusses the issues with healthcare, government corruption and much more. Obama's purpose is to show that even though the nation is at its worst, there is still hope beyond the fear. To do this he uses: either or thinking, pathos and the plain-folk aspect. Obama uses either/or thinking in order to instill fear into the audience. He appeals to this sense of fear by implying that ¨Either we make this change or America will be no more.¨ and that ¨ We remain a young nation. But in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation¨ (4-6) He carries this burden with us and he will never give up on the people under him, for they need the most reassuring. Obama continues by using pathos. He brings the nation's ancestors into his speech by stating: ¨For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.(7) For us, they toiled in sweatshops, and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip, and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died in places like Concord and Gettysburg, Normandy and...
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...Final Rhetorical Analysis Martin Luther King, Jr. Was an African American, nonviolent, civil rights activist and leader from 1956 until his tragic passing in 1986. On August 28, 1963 King proudly presented his well-known “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, one hundred years after former President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation as well as delivered his prominent speech, the Gettysburg Address. King’s purpose of his speech was an intended aspiration to aim at the white population to advocate for the justices of African Americans as well as to encourage the nation to not stand alone but together for the rights appointed to each citizen under the Constitution. King accomplishes his ambition for his speech as he uses different rhetorical devices with his audience such as: ethos, logos, and pathos, as well as using several different figurative language techniques that include, allusion, anaphora, diction, and metaphors. King begins his speech contended and determined, as he explains this specific day will be one remembered forever. His use of archaic...
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...and break both the social and racial tensions by comparing the young men to the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil Rights Movement. Remember the Titans is based off of a true story and is written by Gregory Allen Howard. Released in late 2000, the movie was mainly filmed in Woodstock Georgia and other areas of Atlanta. The time period in which the movie was filmed, was meant to portray the early 1970s in the south. The purpose of this speech was to show the disastrous outcome of the battle due to the men not fighting together as a team. Coach Boone is trying to get the players to realize that they...
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...of Lincoln Memorial along with the thousands of Americans viewing the live national broadcast, King effectively got his stance as a leading civil rights activist in the American Civil Rights Movement across: an end to the prevalent racial discrimination in the country; an end to the inequality, inferiority, oppression and injustice; a ray of hope for a free, prosperous and bright future for the Black Americans. Even though King relies too heavily on emotional reasoning rather than logic and does not provide the audience with any practical ways of achieving his goal of eliminating racial discrimination, he still succeeds in persuading them through a well structured and researched speech, the use of the Aristotelian appeals of ethos and pathos, visual metaphors, repetition of phrases and words and identification with the audience using a ‘we’ oriented approach. His entire speech is so well structured that it could be broken down into two visible chunks; presenting a wonderful transition from ‘what is’ to ‘what ought to be’. Initially he brings to light the harsh reality being lived by Black Americans from the past to present; their poor, deplorable plight, the grave oppression and injustice done to them. He calls on them to realize it’s high time they stood up for their rights through themed paragraphs using defining phrases like “Now is the time” and “Go back to” (King). The second part of his speech portrays the beautiful dream which he wishes would soon turn into reality;...
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...was only about three minutes long. It is one of the most recognizable speeches known to Americans, quoted often that even the beginning is enough to catch your attention. Starting with “Four scores and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation”, the speech mentions the founding fathers, back in 1776, signing the beginning of our glorious country. With a total count of two hundred and seventy-two words, the Gettysburg Address had a huge impact on the Civil War and country as a whole. The speech falls under the informative category because at the dedication ceremony he wanted to inform people mostly about the impact the Civil War had, but also the freedom and equality between men. “... we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have concentrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”. The message received from this part of the speech is...
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...The combination of these two elements bring the different ideas and words together to create something beautifully artistic. Without the use of a specific anaphora, his portrayal of pathos wouldn’t be as sensible, and without the use of metaphors, his statements wouldn’t be as relatable, and without the use of allusion, his arguments wouldn’t be as logical. However, when King combines these devices with these appeals, he is able to skillfully rearrange his words in such a way that his listeners become hypnotized by the elegance of his writing, holding on to every last word he has to say, and leaving them begging and wishing for more. Martin Luther King Jr. was an American civil rights activist who boldly called an end to racism by using rhetorical devices and appeals that effectively related to the emotions and knowledge of the common people. He was able to add symbolic meaning and depth to what he was trying to portray, as...
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